Friday, May 7, 2010

In Which We Go To An Adoption Training Seminar

So we spent all of today in the adoption seminar. It was interesting to get the chance to meet some of the people we'll be working with and hear the various reasons that other adopting hopefuls had for being there. We were the only folks there for Thailand, which isn't really surprising when you consider that only 40-60 children from there a year are adopted by American parents.

While a lot of the information given out wasn't new for Jeremy and me, we did get a more accurate picture of the current timeline in Thailand right now, and it looks like it'll be closer to June or later of next year than it will be to Christmas before we bring Sylvie home. No doubt I will be totally insane from waiting by that point. You can all watch my descent into madness. It'll be fun!

The good news is that we finished the last of our first round of paperwork-- all sixty or so pages worth is sitting on our coffee table waiting to go back up with us to the adoption agency when we return tomorrow for day two of our adoption seminar. Now all we need for our home study is our home visit with our social worker and our references, the requests for which have all been sent out. Getting our home study finished will be a big first step towards bringing Sylvie home, so I'm excited about it!

The other good news is that the Thailand program coordinator from our adoption agency will be traveling soon to Sylvie's orphanage, and so we not only have the chance to get some of our questions about Sylvie answered, but we should be getting updated photos and maybe even video of her! This is really exciting because the pictures that we have of her are almost two years old. We're sending that adorable little stuffed owl over for her, too (selected after I did research to make sure that an owl didn't mean Horrible Death or something in Thai folklore, which would have been great). While she probably won't be told about us until the Thai government officially matches her with us, we're still able to send her little gifts like this, which is a comfort for us (and will hopefully be a comfort for her, as she'll be able to take them with her when she comes home with us). We're taking a photograph of us holding both the owl and a picture of her, so that once she does know we are her family we can send it to her and she'll see that it's from us.

So all in all it was an exciting (though very long) day. I'm sure tomorrow will be the same!

4 comments:

Boooo at no Sylvie for Christmas time. Taking a picture with the owl is an awesome and very sweet idea. I can't wait to meet your little girl whenever she comes home; sure wish it was sooner than June '11 though.

what a cute owl mum collects owls we have owls everywhere and one of her firends is a volanteer in the hosptial shop and oneof the hosptials in sydney and that shop has an owl fettish coz we allwyas get a presssent shes got form there LOL including an owl snow globe mums got owl tapestries and i got her an owl calenda for this year to

Bummer about the extended waiting time, though I suppose it is better to know ahead of time that the process will take a while! The owl is such a great idea- it will provide some continuity for her as she begins the process of coming home.

About The Author

I'm Connor's Mom. That pretty much explains everything. I mean, raising the epicenter of cuteness in the universe is tough, but it has its moments, all right.
I should probably mention that Connor has a submicroscopic, subtelomeric unbalanced translocation 46xy der t(1)(1;15)(q42;q26.2)-- an extremely rare chromosomal disorder. He keeps me on my toes!